Mason, who once worked for Sotheby's, said the artworks collected by Madoff and his wife, Ruth, were mostly reproductions and posters.

Next week, Madoff's yachts will hit the block, sold in Florida by an auctioneer billing itself as "The World's Largest Boat and Yacht Liquidation Company."

When he was sentenced in June, the punishment included the forfeiture of almost all of his wealth.

Even if the goods displayed Friday weren't grand enough, the path leading to them was.

Red velvet ropes cordoned off the staircase to the hotel's grand ballroom, where the Madoff belongings shared space under a crystal chandelier with about 400 lots of other people's belongings also seized by the government.

Texas-based auctioneer Gaston & Sheehan is running the Manhattan sale for the Marshals Service, hoping to raise at least a half-million dollars to be divided among Madoff's victims. That's only a small dent in the tens of billions his Ponzi scheme cost them, wiping out many financially.